How Mysore Sandal Soap Became A Rs 1,785-Crore Brand From A 1918 Royal Experiment

You notice the scent first. Before spotting the oval bar or its familiar green-and-gold packaging, Mysore Sandal Soap announces itself through fragrance alone.

For many Indians, especially in South India, Mysore Sandal Soap is less a product and more a constant. It sits quietly in bathrooms across the country, unchanged in shape, scent and quality since decades. Few consumer products in India have such strong emotional recall, and even fewer trace their story back more than a century. Mysore Sandal Soap is one such product.

Now, with Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL) refreshing the look of its flagship soap and pushing for a wider national presence, attention has turned back to how a pre-Independence experiment with sandalwood evolved into one of Karnataka's most recognisable and profitable state-owned brands.

What's Happening Now

On February 10, state-owned Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited unveiled a refreshed look for its flagship heritage product, Mysore Sandal Soap, with actor Tamannaah Bhatia officially coming on board as the brand's ambassador. 

The actor also posted a series of Instagram stories where she can be seen in the soap manufacturing factory to confirm the news. 

The relaunch marked a strategic pivot for the public sector company as it looks to expand its presence beyond southern India and reposition the brand for younger consumers.

Karnataka's Minister for Large and Medium Industries, M B Patil, said the makeover was part of a broader growth plan. According to him, KSDL has set an ambitious target of scaling its annual turnover to Rs 5,000 crore by 2030, backed by aggressive promotion and national-level visibility.

"Tamannaah enjoys strong pan-India appeal and has over thirty million followers on social media. Engaging her as brand ambassador is expected to significantly boost brand visibility and help create a strong market for KSDL products, including Mysore Sandal Soap, particularly in North India," Patil said.

However, the appointment also triggered a language and identity debate, even when the news was announced last year. Pro-Kannada groups objected to the selection of a 'non-Kannadiga face' for what many see as a legacy symbol of Karnataka's cultural and economic heritage. Protests were staged outside the KSDL factory in Yeshwanthpur, framing the issue as one tied to regional pride.

The government defended the move as a business decision. Patil clarified that the choice followed a committee evaluation process, with actors such as Rashmika Mandanna, Pooja Hegde and Deepika Padukone also considered but unavailable or associated with competing brands.

But how did a soap become such an important part of Mysore's history? For this let's look back at how it actually started.

The Birth Of A Royal Soap

The story of Mysore Sandal Soap begins not in a factory, but in a geopolitical crisis.

During World War I, exports of sandalwood from the princely state of Mysore to Europe came to an abrupt halt. This 'sandalwood' are typically sandalwood trees, primarily Santalum album, native to the Mysore region.

Both the wood and roots of mature trees (typically 15+ years old) were used in the distillation process to extract the oil from the heartwood (core wood).

Faced with large reserves of unused sandalwood, King Krishna Raja Wodeyar IV, along with Diwan (Prime Minister equivalent) M Visvesvaraya who was also a pioneering Indian civil engineer, sought a way to utilise the precious resource domestically.

King Krishna Raja Wodeyar IV. Photo: X

The Government Sandalwood Oil Factory was set up in 1916 by both of them, with the aim of extracting high-quality sandalwood oil from Mysore's forest reserves. The Maharaja envisioned placing Mysore on the global map through what he believed was the world's finest natural sandalwood oil.

Early extraction experiments were carried out at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, under the leadership of Prof Suddourough and Prof Watson, producing oil that met British Pharma standards.

The Government Sandalwood Oil Factory was set up in 1916. Photo: Facebook

In 1918, the idea of converting this oil into soap took shape after a foreign dignitary presented the Maharaja with a rare gift pack of sandalwood soaps. To develop an indigenous alternative, industrial chemist S G Shastri was sent to London for advanced training in soap and perfumery technology.

On his return, Shastri formulated a sandal-based perfume using pure sandalwood oil along with other natural essential oils such as vetiver, patchouli, geranium, palmarosa, orange and petitgrain. The result was India's first indigenous sandal soap, launched the same year under the brand name Mysore Sandal Soap.

This was no ordinary soap. It used 100 percent pure sandalwood oil, something no other soap in the world has been able to replicate at scale. The oval shape, ornate packaging and the Sharabha emblem, drawn from the Mysore royal insignia, were carefully chosen to signal quality and royalty.

Royal endorsement did the rest. The King himself promoted the soap, gifting it to dignitaries, viceroys and foreign royalty. Without mass advertising, the soap travelled across India through word of mouth, elite patronage and travellers returning from Mysore.

How It Became A Household Staple

After Independence and the reorganisation of states in 1956, the soap and oil factories came under the Karnataka state government.

In 1980, the soap factory in Bengaluru and sandalwood oil units in Mysore and Shivamogga were merged to form Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited, a fully state-owned public sector enterprise.

Mysore Sandalwood Soap uses 100 percent pure sandalwood oil.

While many heritage brands struggled to stay relevant post-Independence, Mysore Sandal Soap leaned into its strengths. It remained affordable, retained its formulation and resisted the temptation to replace sandalwood oil with synthetic fragrances even as raw material shortages emerged.

Its Geographical Indication tag, awarded in 2006, cemented its unique status as the world's only soap made with 100 percent pure sandalwood oil. For consumers, the GI tag became a mark of authenticity. For KSDL, it became a legal shield in a market increasingly flooded with lookalikes.

Why Exactly The Soap Became So Popular

To measure the popularity of the brand, let's look at some data.

KSDL reported record financial performance in FY 2024-25, with a turnover of Rs 1,785 crore, sales of over 43,000 metric tonnes and a net profit of Rs 415 crore.

The company has maintained steady year-on-year growth and continues to generate operating revenue exceeding Rs 500 crore annually.

A standard 75g bar of Mysore Sandal Soap retails between Rs 40 and Rs 70, while premium variants such as Mysore Sandal Gold and Millennium soaps command higher prices. Despite being positioned as a heritage product, it remains an affordable luxury.

Today, KSDL is no longer just a soap manufacturer. Photo: Mysore Sandalwood Soap 

Mysore Sandal Soap's popularity rests on a rare mix of factors. The fragrance is natural and long-lasting, the soap is vegetable-based and gentle on skin, and the brand carries royal heritage without appearing inaccessible.

It also became deeply woven into everyday Indian life. It was bought in bulk during festivals, gifted at weddings, stocked at railway kiosks and picked up by tourists as a souvenir of Karnataka, even today.

For many families, it became a default purchase, trusted across generations.

Unlike multinational brands, KSDL did not rely heavily on celebrity endorsements or glossy advertising for decades. Nostalgia, cultural pride and consistent quality did the work instead.

The Long War Against Counterfeit Soaps

Success, however, brought its own problems. For over a decade, counterfeit Mysore Sandal Soaps flooded markets across India, particularly during festival seasons. These fake products, often sold at lower prices, not only dented KSDL's revenue but also posed health risks due to substandard ingredients.

In early 2024, KSDL cracked down hard. Acting on a tip-off received by M B Patil, company officials conducted undercover operations in Hyderabad, posing as bulk buyers.

KSDL staff from the Secunderabad sales office purchased Rs 5 lakh worth of suspect soaps for lab testing, confirming counterfeits lacking holograms and containing harmful heavy metals.

Posed as bulk buyers during peak Sankranti demand, they placed a Rs 25 lakh order to trace the source.

Arriving at the production site pretending to collect the consignment, lead to a raid that exposed the unit run by Rakesh Jain and Mahaveer Jain. Following the raid, they seized Rs 2 crore in fakes, including 1,800 pieces of 150g soaps, 9,400 pieces of 75g soaps, and 400 empty cartons.

Since then, the company has tightened its hologram verification process, increased market surveillance and pushed for stricter legal action to deter future offenders.

A Diversified State Enterprise

Today, KSDL is no longer just a soap manufacturer. The company has diversified into detergents, talcum powder, agarbattis, handwash and personal care products, leveraging the trust built by Sandal Soap to expand its portfolio.

The recent rebranding and celebrity endorsement signal a clear intent to compete nationally with private FMCG players, particularly in northern and western India. Digital marketing, modern packaging and youth-focused campaigns are now part of the strategy.

As KSDL eyes a Rs 5,000 crore turnover by 2030, the challenge will be to balance expansion with authenticity. The brand's power lies in its purity, its provenance and its refusal to cut corners. And if Karnataka's century-old fragrance can find space on the shelves of a new generation, its future may be just as enduring as its scent.